Will Cars Land rival Disneyland over holidays?

ANAHEIM – Disneyland usually draws its biggest crowds of the year between Christmas and New Year's Day, sometimes forcing the park to send visitors next door to Disney California Adventure when it's too full.

But this year may be different: Disney California Adventure might be just as busy as the original park.

Disney officials and observers aren't sure how crowds will stack up during the holiday season, now that the revamped Disney California Adventure is open with the popular Cars Land. Disney has heavily promoted the holiday season at Cars Land with national commercials featuring a flying Mater as Santa with tractor reindeer from the "Cars" movies.

"They really are kind of figuring it out as they go along," said Al Lutz, editor of Miceage.com, a Disney watchdog blog. "Cars Land is just huge. It's taken that park to the next level."

Since the $1 billion makeover debuted in June, Disney California Adventure has drawn heavy traffic. The 11-year-old park had record attendance for a few days in June.

Disney officials are preparing for a visitor crush over the holiday break, while acknowledging that the impact at California Adventure is unknown, said Suzi Brown, a Disneyland Resort spokeswoman.

Regular hours were extended by two hours, and an extra morning hour was added for hotel guests. Additional entertainment, including a parade, will even out crowds. More showings of the nighttime "World of Color" can be scheduled, as necessary.

Disney sometimes must temporarily close gates at its parks when they fill up. On two days last year, Disneyland temporarily stopped admissions for a few hours. On rare occasions, California Adventure has also turned away guests.

The new space and popularity of Cars Land may work to the parks' advantage, said Kelly Johns, founder of Mousewait.com, an app that tracks wait times. "Crowds are so spread out now. I don't think you'll see the closures," he said.

But the lines will be long: Wait times sometimes reach close to three hours. TouringPlans.com predicts crowds on a 1 to 10 scale, giving 10 to the time between Christmas and New Year's Day.

"But it really should be a 15. It is that much more crowded than any other season of the year," wrote Fred Hazelton, a statistician for TouringPlans.com.